I am aware of the 1930s races at Mines Field, but that was dirt road course of which there were several at that time. This one just happened to be located at an airstrip.

What was the first paved airfield circuit, i.e. a course using runways and service roads? The earliest may have been used for a 1937 strictly-stock race at Longview airport in Washington, US. Can anyone offer further details about this?

The first post-war airfield race I am aware of was the Victory GP at Caversham, Australia in April 1946. Was there anything before that?

As Vitesse says, it was a grass field thenFirst used in December 1933 (as Steele's airfield), and again a year laterRukuhia was still being used for grasstrack racing well into the 1960s. I can think of at least one F1 driver who had his first race there

Brooklands is completely different... I'm talking about runways, service roads or taxiways of an existing airport being used for racing. This became common practice after WW2 for obvious reasons, but it surely happened pre-war as well somewhere?

I was wondering this exact same thing yesterday. If the Second World War hadn't happened, and the 'big two' circuits on mainland Britain hadn't been requisitioned for military use, what might British motor racing have looked like in the '50s and '60s? Without a ready supply of paved facilities at places like Thruxton, Snetterton and Silverstone; and presumably without the French recourse to closing off sections of the public highways -- what would the non-Donington, non-Brooklands race driver have done? Speedway-style racing? I believe Midgets raced at Wembley for a brief period after the war...

I was wondering this exact same thing yesterday. If the Second World War hadn't happened, and the 'big two' circuits on mainland Britain hadn't been requisitioned for military use, what might British motor racing have looked like in the '50s and '60s? Without a ready supply of paved facilities at places like Thruxton, Snetterton and Silverstone; and presumably without the French recourse to closing off sections of the public highways -- what would the non-Donington, non-Brooklands race driver have done? Speedway-style racing? I believe Midgets raced at Wembley for a brief period after the war...

They would have had Donington and Crystal Palace. The BARC knew Brooklands was out of date and had evolved the low cost "Campbell" and "Mountain" circuits at Brooklands.

Racing in Britain was moving towards road circuits as is shown by the Donington GPs, the opening of the Palace track and races on the IoM and Jersey. Had finance been available and a way around the noise issue found, then it is feasible that the BARC might have built a road course at Brooklands. It might even have been possible to successfully lobby Parliament to lift the ban on closing roads for racing. Had the E-Type ERA been successful when the GP formula moved to 1500cc in 1940 then the case for all these would have become stronger. As I write this I can see the pig carrying out its pre-flight checks.

... which were the shape of the future. More artificial road courses were the way forward, but where they'd have put them is another matter. At least three projects failed during the 30s and several others never even got past first base.

The BARC knew Brooklands was out of date and had evolved the low cost "Campbell" and "Mountain" circuits at Brooklands.

The Mountain Circuit had been all but abandoned by 1939 and unless the BARC gave up 10-lap handicaps Campbell circuit racing was going nowhere fast. By mid-39 Brooklands was being beaten hands down by Crystal Palace, which was attracting larger and larger crowds to better racing.

Racing in Britain was moving towards road circuits as is shown by the Donington GPs, the opening of the Palace track and races on the IoM and Jersey.

The RAC had no intention of going back to the Isle of Man - they'd lost too much money there - and I doubt races on Jersey would have happened if not for the war.

Had finance been available and a way around the noise issue found, then it is feasible that the BARC might have built a road course at Brooklands.

The noise issue would have been the big problem. The residents of St George's Hill would not have been amused ...

It might even have been possible to successfully lobby Parliament to lift the ban on closing roads for racing.

No chance. They would have argued that the legislation was already in place in Northern Ireland, so why introduce it elsewhere? But after the 1936 TT both Ards and Bangor were closed: only Ballyclare was used in 1937 and even that was abandoned in 1938 due to road improvements. AFAIK they didn't even apply for a date in 1939.

Had the E-Type ERA been successful when the GP formula moved to 1500cc in 1940 then the case for all these would have become stronger. As I write this I can see the pig carrying out its pre-flight checks.

Can we please nail this one? There would not have been a wholesale change to the GP Formula in 1940, although it's my belief that there were moves to run voiturette racing on a more formal basis. The CSI specifically ruled in October 1938 that the 3.0/4.5 Formula would remain valid until December 31st 1940 and I further believe that it could (and probably would) have been extended by at least a year, more probably two.

Long Kesh airfield in Northern Ireland was used for a motorcycle race meeting in May 1945, as part of the VE Day celebrations. Two more motorcycle race meetings were held in the November of that year, but by then the Filton Sprint had been held on 28 October 45.

Thanks Fuzzi - that's one I had overlooked! - and David for the interesting list of 1946 airfield races. Perhaps one addition for that year: the airfield race in Maldegem, Belgium on 6 October, albeit only for motorcycles.

The Caversham circuit is still completly intact and drivable,the straight is mostly unsealed but the D section althoug bumpy the surface
is reasonable.It has been used in recent years for the Caversham Festival.

I believe that the land used for the Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island in NY was part of a larger parcel of land made up of two airfields. Since the previous airfield was one big runway anyway, I could argue that the tracks used in the 36 and 37 Vanderbilt Cups were "airport courses"

The "Brooklands" circuit in Western Australia, which lasted just two meetings in 1932, was built around the West Subiaco Areodrome, a grass strip - or probably paddock - used by one or two small-plane joy-flight outfits, about all we had in the state in that era. I guess it qualifies as a pre-war airfield circuit.

The Bristol Motorcycle and Light Car Club used Whitchurch Airfield (now Hengrove Park) near Bristol for a sprint on part of the perimeter road in May 1937 [covered in detail on Pete Stowe's excellent website]. This was the meeting where Robert Waddy crashed Fuzzi going for btd.

The first sprint meeting on the Austin Motors airfield, known as Cofton Hackett, was held on 11 May 1946. ‘Mr Bob’ Gerard set btd in one of his E.R.A.s in 28.2sec. The second meeting in October was run in rain, but Gerard set a new record of 27.0sec, chased home by Ian Connell in the E.R.A. (R5B) ‘Remus’ with 27.8. The spring meeting of 12 April 1947 was the first speed event of the year and Reg Parnell came down from Derby to take btd in 28sec.

The Midland Motor Enthusiasts Club planned to hold a race meeting on a simple course using one of the runways on 26 July 1947, but the event had to be cancelled, as the course could not be prepared in time. As noted above the Veteran Car Club organised their Longbridge Rally based on the Austin Works in July 1948 and ran a Relay Race and some one-lap sprints on the 1,408-yards Test Track. It is possible that this was located on the old airfield. The works were considerably extended in the early 1950s and the old airfield disappeared.

27.01.1947 Caversham, Australia (autos) - why were Ballarat, Marsden Park and Caversham all held on the same day ?20.04.1947 Gawler, Australia (motorcycles)05.05.1947 Caversham, Australia (motorcycles)

Also corrected the date of the Beverley meeting from 15 October to 13 September.

They were all in different States - there would be no likely clash for entrants

Also, I think that date would have ben a national holiday (Australia Day)

David is correct. In 1947, there was almost nil private travel around Australia. The three circuits were in different states, vast distances from each other. It was not until the mid 1950s that interstate travel to attend race meetings was common, at least for ordinary meetings like these. Australia is a big country....

The Australia Day (it was called ANA day earlier maybe still in 1940s) holiday would have seen car and motorcycle racing events at venues in every state of Australia.

That's the very reason I never saw any 'Round The Houses' races in WA. I had intended to go to Geraldton in 1965, but I was asked to take photos at Lowood on the same day. No clash there, even though travel was a lot easier than in the serious fuel rationing period of the post-war years, but they were something like 3,000 miles apart.

Easter is another date on which there has always been apparent clashes. Hume Weir and Bathurst, less than 300 miles apart, were both on at Easter, while for a few years I think Phillip Island was on over that weekend too, Mallala got in on the act as well.

But there's four days of the Easter weekend, so racing at Hume Weir would be on Sunday, at Bathurst on the Monday, Phillip Island too, if I recall correctly. And probably Mallala.

The newspaper clip below from the Hobart Mercury, 7th October 1946, related to the October 12, 1946 airstrip meeting at Tunbridge, Tasmania, would seem to add weight to the proposition that the Caversham meeting mentioned in the first post was the first in Australia.

This event was motorcycle only, but the club involved covered cars as well, and several later Tunbridge meetings had races for cars.

Not in any official sense as we would understand it, I'm sure. There were certainly ad hoc events run on UK airbases, probably usually while the CO was out of earshot: when you consider that lots of RAF types ran sports cars and had access to plenty of 100-octane Avgas from which nobody would miss the odd few gallons, it would be more surprising if they hadn't raced them!

As for Italy - my guess would be most likely something along the lines of Jeep races when there were no ops on or perhaps (as happened in Asmara in 1943) a few local performance cars being "liberated".

edit: As far as bikes are concerned, there was also the officially-sanctioned Bar-None Motorcycle Club, which was mainly based in Egypt and Palestine (the original idea being to keep the bored squaddies and erks away from the less healthy forms of entertainment to be found in Cairo!) I think they may have had some branches in Italy too.

The newspaper clip below from the Hobart Mercury, 7th October 1946, related to the October 12, 1946 airstrip meeting at Tunbridge, Tasmania, would seem to add weight to the proposition that the Caversham meeting mentioned in the first post was the first in Australia.

Rob, it would appear the road race mentioned in your article did not take place. The Launceston Examiner of 12 October writes that "if time permits, a short distance road race with a small field will also be conducted." But since race reports in the Mercury and Examiner of 14 October speak only of acceleration tests and sprints over the quarter mile and full mile, the race was presumably axed.

I have compiled the following list of races held on paved airfield circuits from 1945-1947 (thanks Richard, Terry and Tomas, for your help, as well as earlier contributors to this thread) :11.10.1947 Dunholme, England (motorcycles)

I don't think anyone has mentioned Melbourne's Fishermans Bend airstrip that was used for many years after the war. Always a popular event, as it was only about 10 minutes from the CBD. The airstrip was used by the Commonwealth Aircraft factory where they made planes for the war, and later on made the Nomad aircraft. The West Gate Bridge now passes over where the old strip was. It was basically set up as a big T with the track divided by using hay bales down each side. Cheers Simmo.

That's the very reason I never saw any 'Round The Houses' races in WA. I had intended to go to Geraldton in 1965, but I was asked to take photos at Lowood on the same day. No clash there, even though travel was a lot easier than in the serious fuel rationing period of the post-war years, but they were something like 3,000 miles apart.

Easter is another date on which there has always been apparent clashes. Hume Weir and Bathurst, less than 300 miles apart, were both on at Easter, while for a few years I think Phillip Island was on over that weekend too, Mallala got in on the act as well.

But there's four days of the Easter weekend, so racing at Hume Weir would be on Sunday, at Bathurst on the Monday, Phillip Island too, if I recall correctly. And probably Mallala.

The only weekend circuits didn't fight over was Mothers Day...In SA there has been an Easter Race Meeting for over 30 years. It was originally Austin 7 Club at AIR [this in my time] and has been both 1 and 2 day formats over the years. The date was sort of hijacked by SCCSA for the Historic Meeting that has happened well over 20 years now.And the only thing that happens Monday is the Collingrove hillclimb.

A wonderful list but I would query the word "paved" I would take this as meaning a sealed surface? ie bitumen tarmac etc Caversham, Strathpine, Beverley, Mooliabeenie, Brooklands Western Australia 1930-1933 would have been a compacted roadbase material that had a loose surface that would have been graded as required and either watered to stop dust or maybe covered in engine oil. The surface of Brooklands was cinders - waste from a furnace? terry

I have compiled the following list of races held on paved airfield circuits from 1945-1947 (thanks Richard, Terry and Tomas, for your help, as well as earlier contributors to this thread) :